So... then does that mean that if those shorts that look like skirts don't help a guy play basketball then he's unmanly... even more unmanly than the usual guy in shorts... that look like skirts?

Do those skirt-like shorts help? What if those old-style short-short basketball shorts help? Wear them and you're more manly?

I'm just testing the theory!

ADDED: I'm noticing how The Sartolialist has hedged his theory: "if they think it will help them win or fit in with the team." And now it seems incoherent. Doing what it takes to win does seem manly, but doing things because you believe it will help covers all sorts of unscientific, superstitious, and just plain stupid things. What's manly about that? And wanting to fit in? Now you're getting downright girly!

It is the same deal with the completely shaven head. Jordan was going bald so he decided to shave his noggin and made it cool for every other douchenozzle to do the same. Previously the only three bald guys you could name were Yul Brenner, Telly Savalas and Mr. Clean.

. Doing what it takes to win does seem manly, but doing things because you believe it will help covers all sorts of unscientific, superstitious, and just plain stupid things. What's manly about that? And wanting to fit in? Now you're getting downright girly!

Belief can be part of what it takes to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women. Look at the superstitions of some fishermen, athletes, and warriors. Fitting in is part of being on a team or part of a unit. Think Sparta.

I've always thought that basketball players look ridiculous in those oversized shorts. The only thing more ridiculous is men who wear them while NOT playing basketball. This is part of Prof. Althouse's "no shorts" rule with which I completely agree.

However, the tighter shorts of the 70's basketball era are not where it's at for me.

Oh, come on! Short-shorts with matching colored-strip tube socks pulled all the way up over the calves, complete with a starched-up collared shirt...preferably with a little alligator or polo rider on it.

It's clear from the tone of the comments that practitioners of the manly arts are few and far between in these parts, so note well:

When you defend in basketball, you focus not on the head, hands, or ball, but rather on the opponent's lower torso and thighs, because they tell you the direction your opponent is headed with the ball. Every other body part can fake direction, but the area roughly covered by the shorts cannot. Hips don't lie, in other words.

By hiding their thighs with baggy shorts, basketball players conceal tiny clues about their exact body position, thereby giving themselves a slight advantage over their defenders. But in sports like basketball or boxing, a hundredth of a second in reaction time is significant.

Manly boxers and basketball players know this, but the smart people around here don't.

Ah, yes. Because boxers and basketball players are so much smarter than football players and fencers.

I take it you're unfamiliar with Le Sportif. In football, loose clothing makes a ball carrier far easier to grab and tackle. In fencing, loose clothing presents a much larger target for a touch. Touché!

Yeah, I have to say, when I am driving an incredibly expensive imported car, alone, at night, and need some shut eye, I like to pull off the road in an area frequented by Lumbee thugs. Stupid is as stupid does.

Not trying to blame the victim here, much, but there is no reason to make yourself an easy target of violent crime if you can help it - try driving a bit further, breaking out a credit card, staying in the Motel 6 or something.

Off the bridge abutment, off the rock, right into the middle of the creek, nothin' but net.

At least they dont go naked anymore. Wrestling was done nude. Women in Sparta played topless.Socrates ,in Plato´s Republich said that women must practice sport and someone answered that guys will giggle at the ridicule spectacle of naked women.

Some rugby player said that they would play naked in the world championship to avoid the extreme heat in SA.The short pant was an attempt to draw women to sports.In volleyball very short shorts are mandatory to attract the public. USA and Italia players rejected the idea of using the same outfit used by brazilians

My point was that American football players have very snug clothing as do fencers. This, I thought, helped contradict the loose-equals-manly thought. Football players have every incentive to "juke" the opponent and do it without wearing canopies.

Look, the manly stuff is just riffing on the professor's theme, nothing more. But the distinction between basketball and football is serious and exactly the point. Football players have every incentive to juke the opponent, but in a baggy uniform the ball carrier can be grabbed and tackled far more easily, which more than negates the deceptive advantage. There's no tackling in basketball (the final Lakers-Mavericks game notwithstanding), therefore the loose clothing offers a small but meaningful deceptive advantage to the one with the ball. Players know this and nonplayers do not (I'll resist the urge to riff on the word player).

I share the professor's belief that men in shorts are almost always unmanly. But basketball and boxing are vocational exceptions.

all sorts of unscientific, superstitious, and just plain stupid things.

Baseball players, in particular, are famous for such stuff, especially when it comes to hitting. Study professional athletes, all athletes and athlete wanna be's, you'll find a mystifying array of superstitious and ritualistic behavior that has no scientific basis.

I think Marv Hagler first popularized the bald, shaven head thing. He had a rounder head than Jordan, and it worked better on him. His peak years were the early to mid eighties, a full ten years before Jordan. How soon they forget.......I agree with Robert that the loose pants probably give players of NBA quality an edge. But the rest of us not so much. It seems dumb to wear such ugly clothes for a millisecond advantage that probably doesn't even exist for amateurs. Thank God nobody at the beach tries to dress like Olympic swimmers.

"There's a very simple reason...men will do or wear anything to win a game."

I assure you, men who partake in 'manly' sports WOULD NOT wear just anything to win a game - especially anything seen on the Sartorialist.

The photo at the bottom of the linked page, case in point. What is that? At first glance, he (?) looks homeless, or maybe he's on his (?) way from acting class to the laundromat.

I think the author drank some spiked coffee before writing this 'piece'.

Really, anything you wear could be called a 'fashion statement'. Observations such as this by the author really highlight the decline of society; he is so bored that he finds 'fashion' everywhere. It really is the same premise/idea that 'art' survives under.

Why, yes. Yes, I am. I phrased it that way because I didn't want to assume we were all using "football" in the same way. You see, I grew up under the crushing, linguistic tyranny of political correctness.